Parents Press San Jose Unified School District on How It Will Protect Undocumented Students

President Trump’s executive orders on immigration have sparked protests across the country. (Photo via Shutterstock)

Maria Tovar volunteered more than 500 hours at Washington Elementary last year. That’s almost 12 hours a week. “I do it with a lot of love,” she said in Spanish. Her son has autism and needs her “in all aspects,” which is why she’s at the school so frequently. But Washington’s tight-knit community also functions as a support system for parents, many of whom are undocumented.

Tovar and other parents worry that President Donald Trump’s executive orders will lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to show up at schools with deportation orders. “If I arrive one morning to volunteer,” she said, “I don’t want to be separated from my children.”

East Side Union and Gilroy Unified school districts released strong statements of support for immigrant families—with explicit provisions about keeping ICE off of campuses—but San Jose Unified’s proposed statement is far shorter and more general. With roughly 30,900 enrolled students, SJUSD is the largest school district in the county. Its statement makes no mention of deportations. Instead, it vaguely commits to helping students feel “valued, respected, and safe.” At an SJUSD board meeting Jan. 26, parents and children packed the room to express their frustration.

“The resolution as it’s written has no value,” said Brett Bymaster, a parent at Washington and a pastor at The River Church in Willow Glen. “We won’t accept that.”

Tom Torlakson, the state superintendent of public instruction, released guidelines for districts in crafting resolutions of support, written by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and National Immigration Law Center. Many districts in the South Bay adopted the guidelines’ strong language. Morgan Hill’s resolution, for example, states explicitly that ICE’s presence would disrupt the learning environment, that ICE agents will not be allowed at schools, and that the superintendent will protect data about student and family identities. In December, Oakland Unified School District committed to remain a “sanctuary” for undocumented students and families, detailing what staff should do if ICE seeks anyone’s personal information.

San Jose Unified’s language is far less specific than the state model.

“All of us as parents and as Latinos are worried,” said Monica Vazquez, a parent of two Washington Elementary students who spoke at the Jan. 26 board meeting. Miguel Luna fears for his grandchildren’s safety. “We don’t know how safe they’ll be in the classrooms at school,” he said.

Parents have asked for teacher training on how to respond if ICE agents ask for student information, which the San Jose Teachers’ Association said they’ll support.

Pam Foley, president of the SJUSD board, resisted adding stronger language to the San Jose Unified resolution because “there are already laws keeping ICE off campus.” She’s technically correct. Right now, ICE can’t enter school campuses because of an Obama administration executive order deeming them “sensitive locations,” along with churches and community centers. But just hours before San Jose Unified debated the resolution, ICE agents appeared at San Francisco’s Good Samaritan family center seeking information from staff. The visit stoked fears of more raids to come.

Days later, even green card holders—legal permanent residents who’d been vetted through proper channels and live in the United States—were being detained at airports because of the Trump administration’s executive order banning immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Parents say they have valid reasons to fear that Obama’s protection order for schools is in peril.

Although 53 percent of San Jose Unified students are Latino, only one of the five voting members of the school board, Teresa Castellanos, is Latina and a Spanish speaker. Board members did not appear to be using the bulky translation headsets that many parents wore at the Jan. 26 meeting, even though the majority of parents who spoke to the board did so only in Spanish. Multiple board members expressed sympathy.

“It makes my heart really sad. I cannot express that enough,” said Kimberly Meek, representing Almaden Valley. But the majority of the board seemed unaware of the contrast between San Jose’s resolution and those of neighboring districts.

Maria Marcelo, a parent who has volunteered and worked in the district for 14 years, said she heard “lots of promises, but not a lot of action” at the meeting.

Parents and children held handmade fluorescent signs that said “Unity and justice for all” and maps with the percentage of undocumented students in each board trustee’s district. Foley unexpectedly limited public comment on the issue to 20 speakers and reduced individual speaking time to one minute instead of the usual two. When the board president closed comments, a silver-haired woman called out, “How can you say you’re listening to us?” to cheers from the crowd.

Foley interrupted, “You’re out of order.”

Vazquez, one of the parent speakers, struggled to convey her thoughts in the shortened time. “You’re up there speaking and the clock’s counting down and there are so many things you wanted to say, but how can you explain all the sadness and the stress you’ve been feeling?”

Foley took issue with the parents’ demands. “There is an adversarial nature here in that we had to be told to keep children safe,” she said to the audience. “That is our number one priority.”

Peter Allen, a spokesman for SJUSD, said the district would not comply with anything “short of a warrant” and does not keep any information on students’ immigration status. “That way we can’t be compelled by the federal government or anyone else.”

But parents are seeking policy specifics from the board, not just vocal reassurance. “I’m an immigrant mother, and beyond that, I love my immigrant family,” Marcelo said. “I think the district has the responsibility and obligation to respond to us.”

Castellanos pushed the rest of the board to include language ensuring that “ICE will not be let onto campus at all, period.” Joined by Superintendent Nancy Albarrán, who also speaks Spanish, Castellanos met with Washington parents for several hours earlier in January, but Albarrán was not in attendance at last week’s board meeting.

Daniel Morales, a grandfather who attended the board meeting because his community is “half undocumented,” recalled INS raids on the East Side of San Jose in the 1960s. “The parents were very frightened, just like this,” he said. “It opens up a lot of scars.”

The SJUSD board will convene again Feb. 9 to discuss changes to the resolution. A vote on revision is scheduled for March 2.

Pam Foley says ICE can’t enter schools because of an Obama executive order deeming them sensitive location.
Where do we find fool’s like this one?

The problem with running a country on executive orders is they can be rewritten by the next president that shows up.
I suppose you should all go down to the federal building waving Mexican flags, tell them this is your country and demand the same right Americans have in Mexico.Maybe Nancy will write you a real law.

I’m absolutely sure President Trump will tell you he believes Mr Obama’s pen and phone will keep you safe,
if you only just belive in dreams.

It is understandable why people want to come here. Half of the worlds population would come to the US if they could. Why do people want to come here? Most likely it is because the US is a system that works. We have rules, guidelines and laws in place that make the US what it is. This is our operating system (OS). When people want to circumvent the system they contribute to the degradation of they system. There are processes by which people can legally immigrate to the US. Like all good things – this takes time. Yet some people feel justified in cutting in line in front of others. This is illegal and RUDE. Anyone doing this should not be making demands. Would you let people cut in line in front of you at the market? Maybe one person with one item. But not 20 million. Our operating system has been seriously infected.

What is also rude is people who come to the USA illegally by the MILLIONS, live off taxpayer paid assistance, get free education for their kids, free school meals, free medical care and whine about what they don’t get…IN SPANISH! They l don’t even have the courtesy to learn our language. The “progressives” blame Trump. The link below is a part of Bill Clinton’s 1995 State of the Union address, where he spent about 90 seconds speaking against ILLEGAL immigration and its costs to taxpayers. The assembled Congress gave Slick Willy a standing ovation after he spoke out against ILLEGAL immigration, yet 22 years later we still have millions of illegals here sucking off the American taxpayer. People here illegally say they are scared. They oughta be. They are here ILLEGALLY. There is a new sheriff in town who will do what Clinton, Bush, and Obama failed to do–place the welfare of Americans and legal immigrants first. Trump and his supporters have had enough of the “progressive” agenda. In Arizona vs. United States SCOTUS made it clear that the federal government has exclusive control of immigration. Actions by cities, counties, or school districts in violation of those statutes should result in prosecutions, in addition to a loss of federal funds. Check outhttps://www.c-span.org/video/? c4351026/c

A system that works? I’d love to hear evidence of that in the form of examples executed real life and under the umbrella of fair and equal treatment-for all. I disagree. This “system” is not exemplary, it is just one lesser of a multitude of evils.

Giuli,
There you go again looking for equal outcome and ignoring equal opportunity. It’s the opportunity that drive immigrants to come to this country there are plenty of places that will treat you to the gray life of conformity of the least common denominator. Try one!

at a market you do not wait 20 years to just get to the cashier. That is why people come here to work and live in a country where there is order and where some people in the government do their job. Back in their country, the government are the same ones who are robbing them, so they see the USA as a sense of hope but when they see that they have to wait in line for 20+ years they might as well kill themselves since they will either die, grow old or get killed. you might say that, that is not our problem but us(USA Govermnet) is always interfering in other countries issues that do not even belong to us. why not focus on these people that want to work and at the same time make America greater, not again because America is already great. our immigration systems is broken and it has been for a long time. plus the Navajo tribe thought we were RUDE too, that didn’t stop us from killing them but I guess it was justified because we were white.

As s patent of students with disabilities I was shocked that the resolution for Inclusive Learning Environments completely left students with disabilities out of the document. Parents of dtudents with disabilities did show up to the Board meeting mentioned above to express concern that SJUSD students with disabilities continue to be denied access to social, academic, and community activities, students with disabilities continue to have the worst achievement scores and highest suspension/expulsion rates and litigation rates. Even though most students with disabilities have the cognitive ability to perform grade level work. Even though legally students with disabilities should be educated in their neighborhood school and in a class with their peers with supports embedded. This is what most people understand inclusive learning environments to mean. I believe in an equity based definition of inclusion that allows all children in our community to feel welcomed into their neighborhood school and learn alongside their community of peers. Only 2 of the 5 elected BOE trustees spoke to our concern, the other 3 cud not, nor did our superintendent team. I am disappointed that The Metro failed to recognize the omisiin of students with disabilities. Equity based reporting would go a long way in supporting equity based reform. Other wise it just all feels like sensationalism and political posturing. Shouldn’t all students matter?

Tiffany, I’m sorry to hear of your child’s disability and the board’s exclusion of your concerns.

I attended public school when the track system was commonplace. A high school student excelling in say math could take college level courses, take standard level English if performing at a B level, or basic English if a C or D level student. One could move up or down depending on academic performance. Germany’s excellent education system is a bit similar, but lacks mobility once a student is categorized.

Courts ruled that the track system was a form of defacto segregation since the advanced classes were mostly white and Asian students while the basic level tracks were mostly African American and Hispanic.

The net effect is that the curriculum was reduced to the lowest common denominator in order to achieve sufficient passing grades. I can only imagine the impact if “inclusion” means that students with cognitive disabilities or emotional problems are present in the classroom.

My sense is such a blind policy harms everyone simply to skirt the ‘separate means not equal’ concern. A requirement to implement at neighborhood schools seems ill-advised. I can imagine a school needing to provide extensive and expensive services for only a handful of students. It would seem sensible to consolidate such services.

Taxpayer, your statements are discriminatory at best and shameful in every other way. All humans have the right to equal education, somehow when that becomes financially relevant, then cowards bow down to what is fiscally sound. These are disabled human beings. Karma is real. You should mind your tongue

Giuli,
Your reality of equal outcome education is that California is ranked like 48 in the nation and we have to hire people from India, China, Pakistan to run Silicon Valley’s engineering departments. Our kids are not disabled human beings, but they are handicapped by a liberal system that was designed to destroy the infrastructure of the country with a mediocre outcome based education, at avery high price. You should think before you flap your tongue, or your Karma will sound stupid.

Oh tsk tsk, I will pardon your defensiveness, outright negative attitude, and unfounded, misinformed statements because it’s evident that you’ve joined the masses with their self-righteous, ignorant, and unwarranted criticism. However, “Stupid” is something I never wear-just doesn’t suit me well.

So, let me remind you that our “handicapped system…with a mediocre educational system,” may be evident in your world, but not in mine. My mirror tells me otherwise, as does the lens I view intelligent humans all around me through.

But, I digress.
We are California.
We not only house the corporate powerhouses that run this world, but we, the “handicapped” people that live here, also conceptualized, and created these corporations from the ground up-from visions to materializations.
California leads this pack.

I’m so over all of that nonsense “ranking,” and “test scores” bs. If we are “below average” in both funding and ranking, then those tests are proven inaccurate and at the very least insignificant.
We are profoundly brilliant in our creative design thought, as well as our execution of said brilliant thought.

Police officers in my city, have a BA as a minimum requirement. Why? Competition. Not only do hoards of people want to live and work here, but those who do, are highly educated, and I’m continually working directly with, and as a member of, extraordinary thinkers.

We are California.
We control the United States’ economy- right here & right now. Therefore, anyone spewing false fear inducing statements such as “handicapped,” I will just list a few names here that should be sufficient to illustrate my point:

A short list, of the reality of CA corporations, but impressive nevertheless.

These names are literally off the top of my head. Some I see everyday driving around town.

The only “handicap,” or “mediocracy” I see in California’s educational system, is in the critics’ unwavering desire to perpetuate the illusion of inadequacy.

But…I was speaking of humans as being equal, and treated as such. So, I’m not sure how it came to a discussion of education and intelligence. However, I’m so glad that it did.
Btw, my karma is smart as well.

Giuliana,
Your portrait of California, is the California of the past when California WAS the opportune place to be.
It also produced Ronald Reagan a while back.
The Golden State, it is now the state of camp followers and flim flam men, of course it has that history going back to the conquistadors.
You on the other hand have a myopic arrogant attitude typical of people that come from places like California, New York, Boston, and France.

Exactly why 40% of California’s want to leave the Golden Welfare State, we can’t afford to pay for this love fest of snowflake philosophers anymore.

> your statements are discriminatory at best and shameful in every other way.

Giuli:

Speaking of “discriminatory” and “shameful”, can you explain why the government of Mexico is so awful to Mexicans? Twenty percent of the Mexican workforce is working in the U.S. Ten percent of the population of Mexico is living in the U.S.

Why is Mexico pushing Mexicans out of Mexico?

Switzerland doesn’t have this problem. People from all over the world are trying to get into Switzerland. Switzerland is NOT pushing Swiss people out of it’s country.

Encourage your disabled children to speak only Spanish, never learn English and never assimilate.

Convince as many of them as you can to start popping out anchor babies. They are good for about $1500 a month in public assistance.

Have every disabled child declare themselves a “refugee”. A single refugee gets a monthly allowance of about $1,890. Each can also obtain an additional $580 in social assistance, for a total of $2,470 a month.

Finally, have your disabled kids declared or anointed as a “protected class” so that they can stain, as a bigot, any politician who dares deny them anything. If they don’t do this, they will never get the help they deserve as “documented” citizens.

I get so tired of these ignoramuses constantly bleating, “We are a nation of immigrants” . WE ARE NOT A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS! We are a nation of “settlers” and “assimilaters”.

By allowing hordes of unskilled, third-world illiterates to stream into this country, fill their pockets with public assistance money then be coddled and immune to prosecution for select Federal crimes, we are creating a country where “IRS overseers” whip on “tax serfs” who toil to pay so that the unskilled, third-world, illiterate hordes can stay here and live in freedom; enjoying rights in a land that none of them has ever fought and died to secure.

No, I would say we are a nation of culture importers. The pilgrims did not “assimilate” with the Native Americans. People who came to Ellis Island kept their cultures intact for generations. The process of assimilation came through their great grandchildren. When Irish and Italians first came, they were not that different from the Mexican people who are coming now. Yet their progeny have made great contributions to American society. What does “third world” mean to you? Is any part of Europe “third world?” If you base it on gross national product, there definitely are Eastern European countries that are more impoverished than, say, India or China. Or is “third world” purely a geographic term?

A “Third World” country is one whose economy or political identity cannot be maintained without foreign assistance. The U.S. gives Mexico over 500 million a year in direct aid and this does not include the amount of money that illegal, undocumented workers take out of the U.S. economy, in wages and welfare, and send out of the country into Mexico’s economy each year as well.

The Pilgrims and the Indians did not need to assimilate because each maintained its own “nation-state”. There were interactions but each lived in their own distinct settlements
apart from the other. However, as was seen in subsequent years, if one or the other group had chosen to live with the other, a pilgrim living in an Indian village, would be expected to adopt the Indian ways and customs. If the pilgrim refused to do so, began demanding that everyone in the village accommodate his ways and demanding he be given things he had not earned; rest assured, those pilgrims would have been cast out of the village and not allowed to return.

This article is poor leftist reporting as it is untrue. The truth is that only people put into jail will be checked for legal status, if they are here illegally then the police has to call ICE and most probably they will be deported.

Donna, I’m under the impression that legal status is not determined by locals. Arrest info is sent to Federal officials and they may determine if the arrestee is dangerous enough to warrant ICE intervention. If they request a detainer, it may be ignored (as was done in the SF shooting by an illegal). He’d been previously deported 5 times.

I believe SJPD only issues a citation if driving without a license or registration. Vehicles are no longer impounded. I don’t believe citation info is sent to Feds. Law enforcement is therefore missing opportunities to detain and deport illegals that violate our laws. Nothing prevents an illegal from getting a drivers license or registering their vehicles. The Merc reported 800,000 illegals with CA licenses last month and 2,500 are enrolled in UC campuses. UC spends $8.5M / year on “undocumented immigrant centers” at various campuses.

They are occupying jobs, classrooms, and services denied to citizens. The vast majority are law-abiding residents, but estimates of criminal illegals range from 850,000 to 2 million.

If President Trump feels strongly about the matter, Congress should provide money. Counties are not reimbursed for ICE requested detentions.

A bounty system to reward law enforcement reporting of illegal offenders is one approach. We already have whistleblower rewards in other instances.

I guess I just don’t get it. If I go to another country (any country including Mexico) there are a set of rules that I must adhere to. I can do this but I can’t do that. Even crossing the border into Canada requires identification (and to leave as well.) Some of the people (let’s call them Mexicans for the most part) can do just about anything they want, at least here in California. So what’s the deal, they won’t even sign the guest book on the way in. There are BILLBOARDS advertising lawyers (Mexican)) know your rights as they cross over, which is nothing more than a fee for the lawyers to get them signed up for all they can get. Also included in now what is the entire state of California to be a sanctuary state, they can have unlimited impunity. So with thousands of taxpayers leaving this state who’s left to pay for this stuff? Well that leaves me, as it does you if you are a taxpayer. You can’t change it, the governing body is in the hands of the Democrats which endorse all of this freeloading stuff. When did all of this go wrong? When people like Moombeam, Feinstein, Pelosi, Boxer allowed it.

Deuteronomy 22:21 says we must stone to death any non-virgin girl living at home. Abundant justifications to do almost anything under halakha, biblical and sharia law. Do we get to cherry pick what to observe?

The New Testament makes very clear that Christianity is NOT about opposing civil law:

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars, . . . .”

Also, you might want to contemplate that the New Testament is substantially “capitalistic”, in that it validates private property, “profit”, inheritance, the rule of law, and wealth creating activities like agriculture and herding.

The New Testament does NOT say: “Let the foragers overrun your fields and herds and help themselves”.

So when is the USA-CA school system actually going to show loyalty to the USA and not to Mexico or Central and South America? Why should we USA taxpayers have our tax money be robbed to pay for people who don’t belong here, who are RAZA Mexican loyalists who want their Reconquista-Aztlan, who constantly wave their Mexican flags and many don’t even bother to speak English and attacked Trump supporters with complete impunity throughout CA and in San Jose, the SJPD allowed the RAZA Mexican loyalist flag wavers, some no doubt ” grateful” DACA-DREAM Act recipients to attack Trump supporters because the SJPD chief, Eddie Garcia is a La RAZA Roundtable member. The SJ mayor, Sam Liccardo also gave his blessings to this event. ——Where does this stop? I want Illegal Aliens gone. They should at least show some respect to the USA but they don’t and won’t. They despise and hate the USA . Look at how they behaved when some students had USA flags on their t-shirts on their precious Cinco de Mayo.—–WE are stll the USA and NOT the North American Union or Mexico.

It’s more than past high time for ALL money to be cut off to Sanctuary Cities and there should be NO money going toward any ILLEGAL ALiEN student.—–Our USA schools who have NO loyalty to the USA actually have chapters of La RAZA-MECHA teaching Reconquista-Aztlan in the higher grades and colleges. This is the plan to reclaim the former Mexican territory ranging from the states of CA to CO-TX. Ask why any USA school would allow this reason to be taught in our schools? —-And shame on Torlakson. I think he should be in jail along with all teachers and mayors who aide-abett Illegal Aliens and in this process is destroying CA and the USA, which by the way is also aiding-abetting the UN GLOBALIST scheme to end the Sovereignty of all nations and Merge the former nations into blocs.

Last Comment: Guess what? GAS TAX-CAR REGISTRATION FEE HIKE!! Moonbeam wants to raise GAS TAXES by 42% and also substantially raise TAXES on car registration fees to pay for CALPERS!!!!!! Maybe, just maybe, we would have more money to pay CALPERS if CA wasn’t a Sanctuary state & we were being robbed blind to pay for all these ungrateful, USA-Hating RAZA Illegal Aliens who infest our state.

There’s a reason traffic got so bad. The major reason is AGENDA 21-the UN. This is the scheme on a GLOBAL basis to drive most people off the land and cram them into super high-density city-state zones.–The SF Bay Area is one of these zones and it’s only going to get worse.

Ever hear about walkability or all the hype about riding bikes, light rail or Driverless cars and that bullet train boondoggle?—-the plan of Agenda 21 is also about coralling us into these cities and Not getting out of them. We can probably kiss off going to Yosemite and many other parks bye bye in the future.

Ever hear of Earth Hour-Earth Day? That was created by the Rockefellers and the Club of Rome

What about all those Greenhouse-Carbon Footprint-Cap n Trade TAXES? These are not to prevent climate change. This is to fund a GLOBAL GOVERNMENT which even Pope Francis called for

Agenda 21 is also called Agenda 2030 and Habitat 3 with Prince Charles.

In San Jose, it’s called Envision San Jose 2030 or 2040 ( I forgot which number) and for the SF Bay Area, it’s called 1 Bay Area.

In San Jose, one such Urban Village monstrocity is found near the Santa Teresa Hospital.

Carl GUARDINO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group & Russell Hancock of Inside Silicon Valley Joint Venture, both of whom are heavily behind Agenda 21 also are lobbyists for H1B visa workers.

So consider all this and if you want to pay all these extra taxes on cars and gas, feel free to do so.

Thanks very much, Empry Gun. I’m glad you liked my response. I’ve been trying to warn people about this for a while now. Most just either sigh with rolled eyes, change the subject, say it’s not happening or ridicule me.

Good job, Rex. Excellent report. Stay on top of this and keep us informed.

Just one quibble: I wouldn’t put “Driverless cars” in the same category with the other U.N./progressive/social control schemes. “Autonomous vehicles” have tremendous possibilities for revolutionizing and DE-CENTRALIZING public and private transportation. They are a big threat to “public transit” and transit unions.

We should all welcome the coming age of autonomous vehicles and the vastly increased transportation options they will enable.

Um, I emigrated to the US LEGALLY. Waited years, paid a lot of money for a Green card. I played by the rules. Why for the love of God should we reward people who try to skirt the rules? What is wrong with California? So very glad I don’t live in that increasingly unhinged state

Why do they need to be “protected”? Did we ever get to vote on this nonsense?

And why can’t the media ever understand the difference between LEGAL and ILLEGAL? These are people here illegally! First, I can’t believe that we are spending our dollars and resources on people here illegally! Second, this is RACIST, because for every illegal immigrant that we cuddle and foster, there are 10 more well-deserving people who are LEGALLY TRYING TO COME TO THE U.S. who will work harder, for less, and are smarter. So why can’t those people come?

How about this: Let’s kick out every person here illegally. Then, let’s add one additional number to the LEGAL immigrants to take their place. Slowly, we would change the ILLEGALs for LEGALs. And we would be able to control it!

Parents Press San Jose Unified School District on How It Will Protect Undocumented Students

To be accurate, the headline should say:

Illegal Immigrant Parents Press San Jose Unified School District on How It Will Protect Their Illegal Students and Themselves From Being Deported

George Orwell would understand exactly what the headline writer is doing: deliberately misrepresenting the situation by pretending these foreign fence-jumpers are “undocumented”.

Please, stop it. They’re not “undocumented”; they have all the necessary documents issued by the country they came here from.

But they’re here without permission. That means they’re here illegally. They’ve been violating our immigration laws every day since they waltzed in, uninvited and unwanted. Therefore, they are “ILLEGALS”.